Updated on May 24 to reflect that one of the Qataris convicted in this crime was pardoned, not two.
The UAE’s president has pardoned two one of the five Qataris who this week were convicted of insulting the country’s royal family on social media, the Emirates’ state news agency has said.
Citing a desire to “strengthen the close fraternal relations between the leaderships and peoples of the two brotherly countries,” Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed al-Nahyan ordered the release of the defendant yesterday, WAM reports.
According to the National, the convicted men faced lengthy jail terms and were ordered to pay large fines after being found guilty of circulating insulting images of the Emirati royal family on Twitter and Instagram.
Their lawyer argued that while one of the defendants had purchased the SIM cards for the phones on which the material was found, he did not use them himself.
Details
Many of the Twitter accounts named in court remain online, and some of the offending material also includes doctored, derogatory images of Qatar’s royal family.
One Qatari, named by the National as Hamad Al Hammadi, 33, was ordered to spend 10 years in jail and pay a Dh1 million (~QR991,000) fine. Four others were convicted in absentia and slammed with the same fine, as well as life sentences.
Earlier this week, several UAE residents tweeted their displeasure with the verdict, saying it was not harsh enough.
But others called for restraint, saying the sentences came at a bad time for the two countries, which have been working to mend relations frayed by last year’s diplomatic spat over foreign policy differences.
Thoughts?
who are the two to have been released?
S.A and Y.K.
As far as I know only one is arrested and the others were convicted in absentia, so was the one arrested released or he is not one the two? Come on Dohanews do the proper job and gives us the full details!
This article said two were pardoned, not released. But we’ve corrected it now because one of the people who were pardoned were not involved in this case.
Predictable….yawn…
Sorry, but this is not a movie/tv show designed to entertain you with unpredictable plot twists…
Games, games and more games. Are you not entertained?
Does the ordinary khaleeje on the street really fool for this political manipulation. Watching monarchs manufacture crises, just to be the savior later on.
“Citing a desire to “strengthen the close fraternal relations between the leaderships and peoples of the two brotherly countries,”. Yeah, yeah we believe your words you are just so sincere
Not too much desire to “strengthen the close fraternal relations between the leaderships and peoples of the two brotherly countries” then.
Apart from how Qatar has exit permits and that they need to seriously improve conditions for lower paying expats; Qataris by large have everything going for them. They have surpassed Switzerland on GDP. We have countries with all the democratic rights for her people and yet her citizens live in abject poverty. I am not saying people should not have the right to free speech, criticize those in power and have free and fair elections BUT .. I also question the reason behind why a small fraction of the locals complain when they have so much more..are given so much more then those who come from democratic countries.
Yes it’s satire but this is how a lot of the rest of the world thinks and probably a lot of locals too, but they don’t dare say it….
http://www.panarabiaenquirer.com/wordpress/50-shades-grey-include-scenes-praising-uae-leadership/